Dear Shoaib,
What an interesting question.
An ABC News article titled Tenth Planet? reports that two teams of
scientists have found evidence of a large body that may be a tenth
planet 3 trillion miles away. The presence of this large body could
explain why comets are often redirected in their orbits. The
scientists have yet to definitively verify that this phenomenon is due
to a planet but one states If I was betting, its better than 50-50
odds that its there (Chang,1999).
The scientists quoted in this article hypothesize that this body is as
large or larger than Jupiter, the largest known planet in the solar
system. They estimate that it is a half light year from the sun,
therefore too dim to be seen (Chang, 1999). Given this, one can
surmise that this body is huge and dark. There is no verifiable
evidence as to the quality of the surface or atmosphere.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/planet991007.html
Another article on Space.com provides more details about the
controversy.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/outer_planets_991014.html
The Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), NASAs Infrared
Astrophysics Data Center has been inundated with questions about the
mysterious planet and denied any such discovery as of 2000.
http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/iras/no_tenth_planet_yet.html
NASA itself has very little to say about the matter:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/educ/fyeo/faq/tenth.htm
Other items of interest:
Is There a Tenth Planet?
http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Physics/SolarSystem/p00913a.html
Tenth Planet
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A410941
In the end the whole matter remains a mystery.
Perhaps they should ask Dr. Who ;-)
http://www.who-central.co.uk/Tenth%20Planet.html
Search Strategy:
Tenth Planet
NASA
I hope this has been helpful,
Gitana |